Developer Diaries

Darkwatch Full Moon: Volume II

Paul O' Connor, lead game designer on the Darkwatch project, talks prepping up for E3.

Crunch Time

There are two times that are absolute hell on earth in this business -- when you're finalizing a product, and the run-up to E3 (for the two or three of you who haven't heard of it, that's the Electronic Entertainment Expo). If the final product is "Opening Night," then E3 is the dress rehearsal, and it's probably the first time you've sent your baby into the pitiless spotlight of public attention.

No matter when you start work on your E3 demo (and there are teams in this industry that do nothing but E3 demos), there's never enough time to do everything you want. Weeks evaporate like spit on a griddle, and before you know it, it's May. Everything has to be done. Features don't merely have to be in the game -- they have to be in the game, working correctly and looking good, and hopefully without crashing or electrocuting some poor fool who just wants to check out your controls.

All the annoying details that have been theoretical up until now -- "little" things like memory budgets, performance limitations, intelligent A.I., robust effects, cameras, and controls -- are suddenly in your face and realer than disco. You can't fake it anymore. You have to make your game work, and the deadline will not move.

Howling at the moon

We hate it. But we need it.

Without the train wreck of crunch time, games would hurtle along on the La-La Land Express, blithely honoring milestones (in spirit, at least), and never paying the terrible price of actually running, all at once, with acceptable framerate, on the target platform until well, maybe never. Every hard decision deferred until the end of the project is a decision that will likely be made for you, and not always to the project's benefit.

Development teams howl like stuck pigs when told to make an E3 demo, griping about compromises, and complaining that the demo detracts from working on the "real" game. And, while there is some truth there, mostly it's just masking a deeper issue -- profound insecurity on behalf of the development team that their ideas aren't good enough to withstand scrutiny. Add to this the high-stakes poker game companies play with their E3 roll-outs ("They've got a theatre!" "They've got booth babes!" "Those guys are doing a human sacrifice!"), and it's easy to see why development teams have nervous breakdowns right around May Day.

So, how is the Darkwatch team faring in this madness? Probably better than most, not as good as some.

Sure the team has been here pretty much around the clock, but you don't give a rat's behind about that. Nor should you. All you want is to get a great game experience for your hard-earned cash. And, if you never actually get your hands on an E3 demo, you want to get positive reports from the press that attends the show, outlining how the demo fulfills the promise (or maybe even exceeds the promise) churned out by a publisher regarding its precious baby.

So, what will we be showing at E3? I'm not telling. It's a poker game, remember? Even at this late date, companies can't afford to tip their hands about what they're showing, and how they're showing it. Besides, within a few days of this article hitting the web, you'll have all the details you could want about Darkwatch, courtesy of the game press which has thus far very generously given our game the benefit of the doubt. And that's another important aspect of E3 demos -- the put up or shut up factor, where the press can take a game's temperature and see if it really is going to be something special, or if it's just a bunch of smoke and mirrors.

I can mention some generalities. We'll be showing an interactive demo version of Darkwatch inside a custom-built theatre at the Sammy Studios' booth. We built a theatre to help focus the viewer's attention on some of the more subtle details that might get lost if the game were made to fend for itself in the casino-like maelstrom of the open floor. We also wanted to build a little mystery and excitement around this new property, so we took the opportunity to construct a theatre that looks just like one of the twisted western buildings you'll encounter in Darkwatch. Inside our "desecrated church" you'll take a seat beneath a Gothic fan-vaulted ceiling, the lights will go down, a Darkwatch badge will come up, and

And then you'll see what we've been doing all these months.

Join us here for the next Full Moon, when we'll go boldly forward into the past?